Western Australian Current Acts

HEALTH (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) ACT 1911 - SECT 337

337 .         Examination of school children

        (1)         Any medical practitioner or any nurse duly authorised in this behalf by the Chief Health Officer may examine medically and physically any child attending any school or child care centre, and such child shall submit to, and the parents or guardians of such child shall permit such examination as the medical practitioner or nurse deems necessary.

        (2A)         In subsection (1) —

        child care centre means a place where —

            (a)         an education and care service as defined in the Education and Care Services National Law (Western Australia) section 5(1) operates; or

            (b)         a child care service as defined in the Child Care Services Act 2007 section 4 is provided.

        (2)         Any school dental therapist employed in a school dental service, or any dentist authorised to do so by the Chief Health Officer, may examine the teeth of any such child, and the child shall submit to, and the parents or guardians of such child shall permit, the examination.

        (3)         Any medical practitioner or any nurse duly authorised in this behalf by the Chief Health Officer who finds that any such child is in an unclean or verminous condition may, by writing under the hand of such medical practitioner or nurse, notify any parent or guardian of the child of the fact, and require such parent or guardian to remedy such condition forthwith, and to keep such child clean or free from vermin.

        (4)         In addition to making the requisition mentioned in subsection (3), the medical practitioner or nurse may, by writing under the hand of the medical practitioner or nurse, require the parent or guardian to keep the child’s hair cut short to the satisfaction of the medical practitioner or nurse.

        (5)         Every such requisition as is mentioned in subsection (3) or subsection (4) shall, in so far as it is of a continuing character, remain in force for 12 months.

        (6)         A parent or guardian who does not comply with a requisition made under subsection (3) or (4) commits an offence.

        [Section 337, formerly section 264, amended: No. 17 of 1918 s 49; No. 5 of 1922 s. 8; No. 30 of 1932 s. 4; renumbered as section 337: No. 38 of 1933 s. 42; amended: No. 113 of 1965 s. 8(1); No. 102 of 1973 s. 26; No. 30 of 1982 s. 12; No. 28 of 1984 s. 45; No. 80 of 1987 s. 155; No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 64 of 1996 s. 18; No. 35 of 2010 s. 73; No. 11 of 2012 s. 35; No. 19 of 2016 s. 99 and 100.]